ABSTRACT The apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of nutrients can be assessed by total collection of faeces (TC), which is the reference method, or by the indicator method (IM). Little information is available on proper faecal sampling methodologies for IM in canines to obtain results comparable to TC. The objective of this study was to determine the minimum number of sub-samples required for the IM to make it comparable with TC. A total of 11 adult male dogs were individually housed in metabolism cages. Dogs had access to a grass yard to facilitate defaecation. Faecal sub-samples (1/day) were taken from the daily faecal output to prepare the pooled samples for IM, obtaining cumulative sample combinations of 3 (IM3), 4 (IM4), 5 (IM5), 6 (IM6) and 7 d (IM7). Digestibility of dry matter, gross energy, crude protein and crude fibre was similar between TC and IM5, IM6 and IM7 (p > 0.05). The IM7 presented the greatest statistical similarity with TC. Nevertheless, IM was not a good predictor of crude fibre digestibility. In conclusion, IM can replace the TC method in dogs to evaluate ATTD of several nutritional fractions as long as the composite sample is collected during seven consecutive days. For estimation of fibre digestibility by IM, longer collection periods are probably required.

中文翻译：

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评估犬营养物质表观总消化道消化率的两种方法的比较

摘要 营养素的表观总消化道消化率 (ATTD) 可以通过粪便总收集 (TC) 评估，这是参考方法，也可以通过指示剂方法 (IM) 进行评估。关于犬类 IM 的适当粪便采样方法以获得与 TC 相当的结果的信息很少。本研究的目的是确定 IM 所需的最小子样本数，以使其与 TC 具有可比性。总共11只成年雄性犬被单独饲养在代谢笼中。狗可以进入草地以方便排便。从每日粪便输出中抽取粪便子样本（1/天）以准备用于 IM 的合并样本，获得 3 (IM3)、4 (IM4)、5 (IM5)、6 (IM6) 和 7 的累积样本组合d (IM7)。干物质消化率、总能、TC 和 IM5、IM6 和 IM7 之间的粗蛋白和粗纤维相似（p > 0.05）。IM7 与 TC 具有最大的统计相似性。然而，IM 不是粗纤维消化率的良好预测指标。总之，只要在连续 7 天内收集复合样本，IM 就可以取代狗的 TC 方法来评估几种营养成分的 ATTD。为了通过 IM 估计纤维消化率，可能需要更长的收集时间。